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Author
Topic: confused (Read 8726 times)

I'm a Lil confused over my diagnosis because I tested negative in december and tested positive in August . I got a western blot done which confirmed the positive results. Last week I got my cd4 count and viral load. My cd4 was 186 and viral load was 5200. The doctor put me on atripla and bactrim DS. I started taking the bactrim, but wont have access to the atripla till about 2 weeks.

Upon reading stuff online I'm a confused over how my CD4 is low yet my viral load is also low for someone not on a treatment. Has someone been in that situation?

Hey NM... welcome and also sorry about your diagnosis. I was diagnosed Aug of this year and I was infected within the last 18 months. I too had an extremely low cd4 at 73 in such a short time. The only thing to consider is that everyone is different you could have a weak immune system by design. Also your strain may be more aggresive. Perhaps also you have been sick or not getting enough nutrients and that contributed. I'm not an expert but many factors can contribute. Some people are poz for a decade before realizing and getting treatment and some of us just tend to need some extra TLC.

I'm glad you found out early, and be happy that you are able to start treatment and get those numbers back up

Its confusing I know because I'm right there with you, but right now just focus on getting more healthy both mentally and physically that is going to be key.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need someone to talk to

My CD4 was 99 and viral load was 180 when I first found out. Not exactly sure why that happened - I couldn't find a solid answer for it either, but it's a good thing. Hopefully for you, as it was for me, that means that when you start your meds your viral load will be undetectable very soon.

Numbersguy82- I haven't really been feeling sick, i've felt great the only thing is i've noticed that my skin has been sorta dry. Did you experience any symptoms? I have alot more questions to ask my doctor on the next visit. but ya .. thanks again for responding and if you ever feel you need to talk to someone feel free to send me a msg...

scotty- wow those are really odd numbers. Crazy how the virus is. What are your numbers now? hopefully doing alot better i hope. When ur cd4 was that low did you show any symptoms?

I def had symptoms... I hadn't noticed until a breakup and I went thru the self pity not eating or taking care of myself phase for a month or so. I think that took a toll and started giving me fevers and night sweats. My hair was falling out also, and I had a dry cough that just wouldn't go away. I dunno for me I'm glad I had something to get me motivated to get tested.

oh wow .... well i'm going thru a breakup as we speak ... but the only things i've noticed as i said were the dry skin like only around my shoulders, and also a sore throat. I'm kinda really anxious to start the meds, but i got to wait.

When I found out I was positive, I had tested neg five months prior. The only symptom I had was swollen lymph nodes. My original out was 364 cd4 and 114,000 VL. I felt fine, didn't feel sick whatsoever. Sometimes the numbers just happen, but really don't freak yourself out too bad. Stress is the worse thing on your body according to my doctors. After 4 months of treatment I am undetectable and my cd4 is at around 700 now. Take care of yourself and you will be fine

Thank u, I've been going thru a lot of posts and just amazed at how well the meds work if taken properly that is .. on a different note I'm glad to report that I'm still not on meds and my sore throat is gone as well as having dry skin.

So my Dr put me on Atripla and bactrim. I've been on bactrim for a week already and will start atripla on Tuesday when the Med comes in. However yesterday I think I had a very bad reaction to the bactrim, I started getting really itchy and my eyes were very sensitive to light. Then the itchyness stopped but I started feeling really cold so I thought I was running a fever but when I took my temperature it was a perfect 98.6. I couldn't take being at work that I had to leave early. I called my Dr n the office said that those side effects were normal, and Ive read that some ppl do have those symptoms but I'm scared of continuing bactrim today in fear that imma feel the same way as yesterday.

Some are allergic to bactrim and there is an alternative. So see how it goes.

It's totally natural to be particularly nervous so soon after having been diagnosed. You're not going to fall through a black hole and nothing big bad is going to happen. It's very important to have a doctor in whom you have confidence and with whom you can become partners in keeping you healthy. I always suggest keeping a pad and pen handy so that if you think of a question you can write it down. That way when you have an appointment you won't have to depend on memory to remember everything.

You've already gotten a sense of the support and experience available for you here. So ask questions or discuss anything that's on your mind. Handling this change in your life along with a breakup is a lot to deal with all at once. First things first, so your health takes priority over everything else.

Thank you Andy for your feedback what i did with the bactrim is that i changed it from taking it in the morning to taking it @ before bed and my body seems to like that alot more. So hopefully i have no more problems with the bactrim from now on...

And i finally got my Atripla today ... so i'll be taking that tonight .... although i'm nervous about these crazy dreams, that everyone talks about lol .... :/ we'll see how that goes tho ....

Again thanks to everyone on the forums for all the support and information u've posted on my post and other's ppl's posts

Thanks realist. Just to update you guys, I didn't really sleep to well in fear of the crazy dreams. When it finally came time to get up for work it felt as if I was drunk, and groggy. The drunkness didn't last to long. I also think that I didn't have any wild dreams. Lets see what tonight entails.

A lot of people report that what they do in the hour or so before bed influences what they dream about on this med, so keep that in mind and watch a comedy or something else light-hearted. Watch some porn if you're into that sort of thing, but if I were you, I'd leave the B&D and/or S&M videos for another time.

Whatever you do, don't watch horror before going to bed.

Instead of telling yourself that you're going to have bad dreams, tell yourself that you're going to dream about whatever makes you the happiest and maybe you'll have an excellent night.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

Ann's right Ranger - some nights I get the dreams and some nights I don't.... some nights they are brief and multiple, other nights a single, long dream. I thnk I have only had one or two "bad" dreams - most are just vivid and kinds of "trippy" -- I think that is why they name the drug aTRIPla. LOL

I too experience grogginess - especially when I take it around 11 pm and wake up at 6 a.m - if I take it around 9 pm, I don't get the effect as much.

2nd night came along and well i took it 2 hours earlier then the other night is that bad?

anywho i plan to stick to this new time because i really didn't experience any side effects and i woke up pretty alright in the morning... funny thing tho, is that i woke up in the middle of the night freaked out unsure if i had taken my pill or not so i got up and counted the pills to make sure i took it. hahah

Two hours aren't going to make a difference so no, it's not bad. If it works better for you side effect wise, then it's good.

You should get yourself a pill box - one of those ones that has a compartment for each day of the week. That way you'll know at a glance if you've had your meds or not, instead of having to count them all.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

You should get yourself a pill box - one of those ones that has a compartment for each day of the week. That way you'll know at a glance if you've had your meds or not, instead of having to count them all.

That's what I did. I think i'd drive myself crazy, questioning whether I took my meds or not, if I didn't have my pill box for the week.

After reading this post, I have to tell you how impressed I am with the way all of you are handling such recent infections. I say this because I think it is important that you recognize your ability to function, after receiving some life altering news. A key to living with HIV is the ability to adapt to changes and you folks seem to be doing very well. You should all be proud of how you are addressing your own infections. I wish to welcome you all to the forums.

After almost a week on meds I haven't had any dreams and wake up pretty normal in the morning. I even went out this weekend but called it a early night after 2 glasses of wine. For the most part the Med seems to be good to me and my body seems to tolerate it OK.

Only thing is that my sex drive is practically non-existant, it scares me im not really depressed but wondering if this is due because my body is still adjusting to all these changes. Should I talk to my doctor about this or try to weather it out until it starts getting better, if it starts getting better at that matter.

I had a lot of problems initially with the Atripla. I started it on September 1, and my doctor recommended that I take it during the day because of the dreams and the insomnia... bad idea. It was like taking an extremely bad drug and made me absolutely unable to function. So, I slowly switched it over to night, and that helped a lot. I still experienced grogginess in the morning, and if I stayed up for too long after taking it would experience the "tripping" and find it harder to get to sleep.

However, they say that the side affects should go away after 4-6 weeks, and sure enough they have. I'm not groggy anymore, and if I wake up in the middle of the night, I don't feel dizzy at all. It's a great relief because for a while I was unsure whether I could handle it. I sort of locked myself into a feeling that there was no end in sight, so it was nice to see the side affects subside. Even better, my viral load dropped from 113,000 to 1,427 in just a month. For some reason my doctor said it's not necessary to see what my CD4 count is after just a month because your white blood cells take longer to go back up. So, I won't know if my CD4 count of 360 is up until I do more labs in December.

Good luck everyone! It's reassuring, comforting, and also interesting to read everyone's stories. These forums are awesome

Hello everyone, just to update you all in my progress .... for the most part i think i'm tolerating the meds pretty well. yesterday however as many other people have experienced, i started to get a rash, it started in my chest, and now is all over my upper arms, legs and back\shoulders. I hope it goes away pretty quickly. My doctor warned me about that and also from reading posts on here it seems perfectly normal.

I kinda want to say my mother knows about my sickness. Because she told me i should get tested for HIV and get blood work done, cuz of my rash in stuff. I've been keeping this to myself and the only person i've told is my partner along with two best friends. However it's killing me that i'm not sure if i can tell my mom or even @ least my sister. I hope i get the guts someday. Today they saw me over dinner and they asked what was wrong because my face was super red and they saw the rash on my arms, i told them it's these meds i'm taking, and it was nothing serious. but ya i really wanna get this off my chest but i'm scared of their reaction.

I was allergic to Bactrim... or so I thought. I started Bactrim before my HIV meds and had no side effects. Then I started the meds and got the rash also. I heard how Bactrim can cause bad side effects so I attributed my problems to it and switched to Dapsone. Well the rash stayed around. I now know that I was just going through an adjustment cycle, and at the 2 week mark my rash went away. It hasn't been back since. I hope yours clears up soon!

I'm in the same boat about family. I lost my Mom this year so i don't have any parents left to tell, but I have chosen not to tell my siblings. I don't see the need and honestly we aren't that close anyways. However I know without a doubt My Mom would have been the first person I told. She was the most caring and non-judgmental person that I have ever known. We had a great relationship. I know not everyone is the same, but I know if I had a sick child I would want to know... mainly so I could support them and make them understand that they aren't alone.

hello and hope everyone had a good thanksgiving .... mine wasn't so great :/

anywho just to update everyone i got really suffocated with everything that was going on(my status, breakup, among other things) that i felt i needed to come clean to my sister as my brother in law. It was a huge relief off my shoulders, although it made them super depressed. So far they say that the optimism i displayed was a huge help, however its kinda a roller roaster with me somedays i'm fine and others i'm pretty down, but i feel as if i have to maintain a good attitude about this so they won't worry as much. My sister joined me in my most recent dr's appt. It helps to know that they are supportive. I have yet to tell my mother and plan to keep it that way for the time being.

The dr's appt when pretty good my cd4 went to 206 i believe and my viral load dropped to somewhere in the 800's. I can't remember off the top of my head, i'll get a copy of the exact labs when i go in for my next set of labs which is this coming Friday(Dec. 3). So since my cd4 is above 200 the dr took me off the bactrim so now i'm only gonna be taking the atripla as well as a iron supplement.The dr is a little concerned with my liver tho :/ I've also have very dry skin i wanna say it's from the atripla, my skin feels ultra sensitive. Hopefully this goes away soon because it doesn't feel nor look good.

as far as the love life is concerned, i've been on and off with the same person for about a year now, prior to knowing my status we would have unprotected sex, but after knowing my status we have had protected sex. my sex drive tho has dwindled and that has taken a toll as to our problems lately. :/ he's been with constant cough, and occasionally flu like symptoms for quite sometime now, and has been getting tested regularly and test's negative. but that's i guess another topic that kinda baffles both of us

My numbers was similar I tested neg on the summer of 2009 and august 10th I tested poz so my CD4 was on 279 and viral load on 122000. ; weeks late my Dr put me on atripla 3 weeks later to be on meds mi viral load dropped to 640 my CD4 still on 279 no side effect after one week, I have vomit some times, very sensible of my stomach.I was on two bad dreams but I handle pretty well after 4 months!!!!, so to everyone just look forward and think positive. It's what it is I'm 27 y/o

hey maelrod ... sorry to hear about your diagnosis ... but ya that's all you can do is be positive and optimistic. i've just had those symptoms i've mentioned ... i go tomorrow again tomorrow to draw some blood for my 3rd set of numbers. hopefully i'm ud by now.

Waoo. I did blood test today my 3rd one. Hope be better w my cd4, I'll get my result next Friday, I'm going crazy, just get a puppy a month ago, I love her but she is a mess lol lol good when u r up and down. If you feel alone get a doggie or cat, a bird even a fish just get some real love

I love ERA she is a cocker spaniel she love take a shower I enjoy give her a bath, I used to have a gold fish but long time ago die, was on my kitchen table any time I get home he stRt to move like a shark...I decide to get ERA my puppy cuz I need to keep me busy and she do a good job I love here after work can wait to get home just to play w her. I know this is HIV forum but our lifes can't go arround that(HIV ) lets enjoy our life